OK was seeing how dim you lot are about long term 968 CS owners car! :O(
Let me make up for the lack of article in PP! If only they had warned me!
Are you all sitting comfortably? Then i will begin.
Porsche 968 CS
Having sat in the yellow Motorshow Club Sport back in 1993 I always planned to own one, one day. Problem was I never thought I could part with my 3.2 Carrera to buy one.
My work transport was a VR6 Corrado and when that begun to play up I decided it was the time to get a Club Sport. I joined the 968 UK forum and noted a member Chris Holdsworth living close by. I made contact and arranged to visit for a test drive passenger lap and to return the favour in my 964 RS which had replaced the 3.2 a couple of years earlier. Chris had the Coupe but it was in the all important yellow colour with sport seats and CS steering wheel. I was sold!
So where to find a nice 968 CS? I checked the usual places but wanted the elusive M030 M220 options and must have Recaro bucket seats. Needless to say the choice was limited and although I found a yellow CS in Yorkshire the non standard wheels and comfort seats put me off.
I like the seating position in the RS on the left side so the search widened to Europe. I called the man at H&S and gave him my requirements for nice CS. Well he just happened to have a friend selling one due to a bad back. The car in question was a Maritime CS with M220, Heigo cage and low mileage 39k miles. The car had M030 calipers and 993TT discs. The car was stored at Ring Racing near the Nurburgring.
So the car was 95% there on my requirements. The A/c and sun roof were the only downside. I have learned to live with the A/c but have never opened the roof!
Of course there was other interest and the price was firm so if I wanted it I need to move the money before seeing the car! Well I new Tom from my trips to Spa and the RS had come from his stable and was his personal car, for a time. I new he would not sell me a lemon so I made the transfer.
I met up at Spa where he was racing in the 6 hour historic race in his Alfa. I got the keys over breakfast and then had to find my way to Ring Racing to recover the car! Well at least I would get to try it out at the Ring!
I had booked the RS on a trackday at Spa the day after and so also got the chance of trying the CS around Spa. It was great on the Ring but way too soft at Spa. Let the tweeks begin.
M030 ARBs and Dynatech strutbrace and M030 suspension with Transaxel chip. The car was transformed.
Trips to Germany's Papenburg test circuit and Evian on Lake Geneva followed. It was still a very comfortable mile muncher with the all important A/c!
I got the history of the CS from Tom. The car was registered in Aachen by a Luxembourg owner. The car was then bought by a German banker for his wife. The car had had an easy life with regular visits to the OPC and the gearbox rebuilt for the pinon bearing. The banker then sold the CS to the company chauffer. Allegedly the chauffer then managed to get one of the senior managers pregnant and was forced to spend 5 years on a career change looking after the child! The car was stored during this period( hence the low mileage). Tom had spent some time looking for a CS for a friend and this one was the best he could find for sale in Germany. The friend from Hamburg then spent some money getting the car ready for the Ring.
The roll bar was fitted and uprated S4 brakes and 993TT discs. He also bought a season ticket! Unfortunately, he managed less than 10 laps before a bad back meant the car was for sale again.
This is where I stepped in!
First was the trip to OPC for full belt service including tensioners and rollers. The upgrades followed shortly after. The final swap was to M030 spindles and Big Reds with Goodridge hoses, RS4-2s and 928 bias valve. Now the CS is perfect.
The photo was taken at St Monans in Fife by Steve who was looking for a willing subject to kick off his car photography business. More pictures can be found on his web page:
Just Hype Media - Photographer of Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini
I can't believe the 968 regulars don't recognise my car! :O(
Let me remind you Super-Marv and Big Dave!
http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=478043
Hope this make up for the lack of article in this months PP?